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AAFP Embraces Social Media

 

Well, it's official kids! I am the "King of Family Medicine Social Media!" I mean, I knew that for a long time - Hehe. But, don't take my word for it. Check out the video above where new AAFP President Dr. Glen Stream jokingly makes this reference as he initiates the new twitter ID @AAFPPrez. Now, I know that 7000 twitter followers does not constitute social media royalty. But getting a shout out from the AAFP Prez is very flattering, and I'm humbled by the recognition from the podium.

I think it speaks volumes that the largest physician organization in the US (following the AMA & ACP) is embracing social media in such a major way. In addition to the president's twitter feed and facebook page, there is an AAFP Leadership blog that will be updated by "The Prez" (just a friendly suggestion - the Leadership blog should be easily accessible from the American Academy of Family Physicians front page) The video above is the rest of my impressions from the recent Orlando meeting.

It's really hard to believe that it has just been four months since the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies meeting. It was here that twitter really started it's AAFP momentum and started to gather that critical mass at the leadership level. This momentum continued at the annual student/resident meeting two months ago. And, just before the start of the AAFP Congress of Delegates meeting, I made a bold prediction that this Orlando meeting would be the tipping point for social media in the organization.

Right before the meeting started, it was announced that for first time ever, there would be portions of the Congress of Delegates meeting broadcast live on the internet. In addition, these sessions would be archived and could be reviewed later at AAFP.org/Congress. During the course of the meeting, I saw more and more new people tweeting out.

In addition, I presented about Family Medicine and Social Media which was very well received. I was interviewed by Family Practice News (video here) and Primary Care Clinician (video yet to be released). (By the way, my FPN interview was the most viewed of all FPN interviews recorded at the meeting)

So, it sounds like we should be taking a victory lap. Actually, our social media work has just begun. It's really the case of "Be careful what you wish for." The next Congress of Delegates meeting is in 13 months. In this time, I, along with my other AAFP social media advocates, really have to show to the organization the value of social media.

I'm encouraging my colleagues - that for the next year - to leave comments on the AAFP leadership blog, leave comments on the AAFP President facebook page, interact on twitter, and whatever else you can think of to show the Academy that social media is a valuable communication tool.

If value is not shown, then, like other organizations and corporations, this social media movement may be over when we arrive next year in Philadelphia for the annual meeting. I'm very much looking forward to this challenge. It will be my job to continue to cheer on my colleagues and encourage/empower them to explore social media. I'm pleasantly surprised by the social media progress that we have made with AAFP in 2011. Hopefully, we can keep up this momentum in 2012 and in the future...

#AAFP 2011 Prezo: Family Medicine & Social Media

 

Family Medicine & Social Media

I have to admit that I'm really nervous right now. I mean, I've been doing this Family Medicine & Social Media talk all year to various groups. But tomorrow, everything gets more serious. Why? Because this will be the largest conference that I have presented at - the American Academy of Family Physicians Annual Scientific Assembly. From a professional standpoint, I have dreamed of presenting at this conference.

For those of you on site, the presentations will be (tomorrow), Wednesday, September 13, 2011 at the convention center at 9am and 12pm in room W231A. Apologies to those of you attending the AAFP Congress of Delegates meeting as my sessions overlap. However, I have been told that my session will be audio recorded and available at some point.

This might sound really bad, but I feel like that I have been kind of prepping this talk the entire year. Trying out some slides, some phrases, some gestures, and other things. Letting things go of what doesn't work and keeping what does work.

You'll see above the slides that I will use (probably). You'll also see that it won't mean much because I use A LOT of pictures and not a lot of text. The other thing too is that I'll probably delete this presentation in a few days, because there are A LOT of copyrighted images in this slide set, and I don't exactly have permission to use them. So, check it out before it's gone!

If you want to see an earlier draft of this presentation, I encourage you to check out this link for when this presentation was given in April 2011 at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine meeting in New Orleans, and in June 2011 when it was given at the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting. Or, even all the way back almost a year ago at the Family Medicine Education Consortium meeting. Enjoy!

Live: AAFP 2011 Congress of Delegates

 
 

 It's really exciting that the American Academy of Family Physicians are going to live video streaming of their Congress of Delegates business sessions. The picture above is from the Sunday night Town Hall meeting with a variety of topics. On facebook, Jim Greenwald wrote a great summary of the Town Hall meeting on the Facebook page of the New York Academy of Family Physicians.

According to the AAFP website, live streaming of the Congress of Delegates will begin on Monday, September 12, 2011 at around 7:30aET on the AAFP ustream site (just watch out for the ad pre-roll before the actual video stream begins). The entire schedule is on this press release. In addition, they will also have the video recap of the Sunday night Town Hall meeting.

ParaDocsShow: 9/10/2011

In the video above, you'll see the latest edition of the ParaDocs program which is a video podcast with my co-host ER Physician Dr. Jeff Myers. This is the 7th episode and in this episode, we talked about memories of September 11, 2011 on this 10th anniversary of that fateful day. As what usually happens, our initial topic drifted to others like our opinion of today's disaster preparedness process. You can check out past episodes here at the Family Medicine Rocks blog. We welcome your feedback for our program at PairODoctors@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

2011 AAFP Orlando Prediction

 

Next week in Orlando, Florida will be the HUGE annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The beginning of the week will be the Congress of Delegates which is the important policy meeting, and the latter part of the week will be the education meeting called the Scientific Assembly. (Just as a personal plea, to keep things simple, I hope that they only use #aafp as the hashtag to keep things simple)

As all of you know, I'm a social media psuedo-pundit - especially for my beloved specialty of Family Medicine. I really had a huge plan for a series of blog posts this week to try to get my colleagues fired up and ready for a social media deluge during next week's meeting. Unfortunately, as usually happens, real life and work got in the way.

Going into this Orlando meeting, I have a bold prediction when it comes to social media. Four months ago, social media and Family Medicine really came together at the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies meeting. This was driven by a core group of Family Docs at that meeting. I wrote about it in the post "Why Family Medicine Needs Social Media." It seems like since then, social media has been gaining momentum in the Family Medicine commmunity.

As documented on this website, I have been graciously invited to speak about social media by many Family Medicine organizations. Organizations like the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine have announced a formal social media policy. State chapters like New Jersey, Texas, and Arizona have had educational and advocacy meetings live on the internet. The AAFP student/resident meeting used social media heavily. I have also been asked to give a social media session at the Orlando meeting. (sorry about the shameless plug; a previous version of my talk is in the video above)

Here's my prediction: With the help of my Family Medicine social media champions/friends, I predict that the 2011 AAFP Orlando meeting will be when social media will reach the mainstream of the Family Medicine landscape.

What? Huh? Mike, what the heck does that mean? You're sounding like a politician with that statement. (yeesh) Ok, let me explain it this way. Many in the Family Medicine community have an awareness of social media. I believe that this meeting will move people from a social media viewer to a social media participant. In this manner, more social media enthusiasts will be born and they will take this energy back to their state chapters and continue to spread the word there.

In the Family Medicine sphere, I feel that we are at the cusp of something really special. Communication is one of the strengths of Family Physicians. And, as docs become more comfortable using social media, they will come up with more creative ways to use this medium to spread the message of our specialty. This will be very important coming up in the advocacy realm for both the 2011 and 2012 election cycles, and in general for educating our patients and our communities.

Especially if you're a Family Physician, I hope you will join this challenge and help bring this prediction to reality. It is my belief and my hope that next week in Orlando, Florida will be something very special and will be the tipping point for Social Media in Family Medicine....

Update: Just after this was posted, I was reminded by my friend Kevin Bernstein. MD that the AAFP itself is going to be live video streaming some of the Congress of Delegates sessions. AAFP just posted the message last night - including specific dates & times of the live streaming. This is great for those AAFP members who will not be able to attend the policy meeting. Thanks AAFP! (see my prediction is already coming true LOL)

Paradocs Show: EMS World Expo 2011 Preview

In our latest Paradocs Show, Jeff and I try to make fun of people going to the EMS World Expo which starts this week in Las Vegas. It's not that we're bitter (well, maybe not). We wished that we could have partaken in the fun of the conference, but alas, not.

What you'll see in the video above, is that we actually hardly even talk about the conference. As usual, we started talking about the Vegas conference, and then we drift and talk about a variety of other topics. If you would like to help give our show some direction, feel free to e-mail us at PairODocs@Gmail.com. Enjoy!

ParadocsShow: Work/Life Balance

 

Thanks to the EMS social media gurus - Chris Montera & Jamie Davis - I'm part of a new podcast project with ER physician Dr. Jeff Myers called "Paradocs." This idea was born in Baltimore at the EMS today conference back in March 2011, when Jeff and I were guests on a podcast at that time. It was joked that we should do a podcast, and we're trying that out now.

Episode 1 was audio only and you can download here. Since then, we have done a total of four episodes (so far). It's really still in the "beta" stage, but we're learning our way. The video above is the fourth episode of the series, and we're trying a video version of the podcast as well. The topic of this episode is about the challenges of work/life balance - with special emphasis to med student and resident life - and also social media life and real life balance. At some point, the episodes will all be downloadable. But, for now, this episode I just threw up on you tube.

I'm really hoping to target this podcast toward medical students and residents out there who may be interested in topics from two guys who are past residency and can maybe give some perspective to those at the medical training part of education. We welcome any feedback that you may have - especially since we're still shaping the show at this point. Enjoy!

FamMedRocks Episode 15

Episode 15 was really fun. I think that I'm really starting to get my groove back as far as podcasting. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback about the end of episode 14 where I shared a little story from the med school and residency days.

In the video above, I moved this kind of like "Blast From The Past" segment to the beginning of the show. I talked about an elderly couple I met during residency and how I got to know them during the course of my Family Medicine training.

Also during this show, I talked about last weekend's Ohio Academy of Family Physician meeting. I invite you to check out my Day One and Day Two posts. Also check out a blog post by Pat Jonas on his DrSynonymous Blog and his podcast as well.

If you enjoyed this podcast, I invite you to check out other episodes on my BlogTalkRadio page. Other videos can be found on my YouTube page. And, don't forget to "Like" the Facebook page for the podcast. Thanks, as always, for all of the support for me and for my projects. I really appreciate it! 

Right-click to download episode

#OhioAFP Meeting Day Two

 

Yesterday was a very busy day at the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians meeting. The morning sessions had to do with discusions about team care, the patient centered medical home, and practice transformation. Dr. Peter Anderson from Family Team Care in Virginia talked about how he transformed his practice to more of a team based approach. There was also a fascinating panel involving representatives of the State Medical Board, state nursing board, and state pharmacy board. 

The lunchtime session was about the current legislative status of bills in the state house and senate. I really get frustrated with the political process at times. The change of one word, or the absence of one word - this can change a bill entirely. And, the politics of how a bill gets done and/or negotiated - this is frustrating as well.

The annual dinner, awards ceremony, and instillation of officers is always a nice affair. I was elected back on the board of directors for the organization - so that was fun. In addition to the speeches that were given, the awards for the educator of the year and the Family Physician of the year were given. These stories are always inspirational. Recognition of great work is something that can always be done more. Too often when I come to these meetings, I hear the frustrations about how patient care can be done better and the hurdles that need to be cleared to make that happen.

My first board meeting will be this morning. It will be nice to see long time friends and to see how I can help the organization be an advocate for Family Medicine. Better communication with members, with legislators, and with the public - I always think that we can do this better. Telling the story of Family Medicine and getting people to better understand this - this will be the key to reaching our organizational goals. I believe social media is a great supplement to the current communication tools that are being used. My challenge will be to communicate this message to the organization and to its members.

#OhioAFP Meeting Day One

Today is the first day of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. I invite you to check out our schedule of events here. Day one's education program is highlighted by the topic of the Patient Centered Medical Home. The afternoon is the business session where members take up resolutions and policy making. The day is closed out with the dinner awards session and instillation of the orgaization's new officers. (Check out the video post above)

It's no secret that I'm the social media guy - Duh. For those of you on twitter, I invite you to follow the hashtag #OhioAFP today and tomorrow for updates. My goal is to get some of the members here signed up and to give all of you out there education pearls from the sessions along with updates from the meeting. I'm also going to capture pictures, video clips, and audio interviews to be used later.

Last night, there was an "informal gathering" in the hotel lounge. It was great to catch up with people like @blackweldermd and with other long time friends. I also got to meet some people who have come in from out of state to attend the meeting. These are usually officers of other Famiy Medicine state chapter organizations who visit our state meeting. It's always interesting seeing what's happening in different parts of the country.

My day opens with a meeting with the Nominating Committee. My name has been put up as a potential member of the Board of Directors of the OhioAFP. I was on the Board as a student and then as a resident. Following these years, I steped away from the OhioAFP for a while to explore other projects and opportunities. But now, for me, I think it's time to get back involved with the state organization.

For the first time in a long time, I'm fired up and excited to take part in this #OhioAFP meeting. In addition to talking & teaching social media, my goal is bring my enthusiasm and passion for Family Medicine advocacy to these meetings and get other people fired up as well. Let's do this and have a little fun in the process!